I'm still unsure about the overall design of my stage, but I do have some vague ideas that I think might be interesting to try.
First of all I had the idea of having the stage in two colours, black and white, mainly because in the 1920's everything about racism was very cut and dry. The mentality of US and THEM, or the OTHER. This idea however is I think cliche "Oooh a play about racism and African Americans, better have a stage that his black and white." It's a very obvious idea.
However, I was trolling through the internet this morning and found these videos:
In both of these clips I like the idea of the character interacting with the shadows. In clip #1 I like that the shadows changed for different sort of settings, and the use of colour was a spectacle instead of the norm, which is what you usually get when you come across digital visuals. It might be cool to use shadows to change the scenery,this would be particularly interesting if the shadows turned into the jungle one moment, and then morph into the visions that Jones has.
Another idea I had was having a massive history book on the stage, THIS A FANTASTIC IDEA!!!!I don't really know why I came up with this idea. I thought maybe that it was sort of silly that some people in America wanted to get rid of the word 'nigger' from the novel Tom Sawyer because it was offensive. And of course it was/is offensive but that's what people said back in those times and even now. It seems that they want to erase what atrocities the 'white man' had done to the Africans, or in some way try to deny that it happened at all.
I think that's one of the main reasons why I came up with that idea.
2/4/2013
I just really like the detail of this one. But I would prefer my own one to be a little bit more simpler.
It would be terribly awesome if some of the shadows did this, like kind of bleed through beyond the stage or come upon Emperor Jones like how the hand to the woman. I think it would kind of give more of that 'fear' that Emperor Jones has, and hopefully make his situation and his mental state potentially more dangerous or 'alive'.
What happened to the history book idea? You could combine your two ideas... I don't know Serge, I mean I could make the frame for the shadows look more like a book...
15/4/1013
Ok, so I have pictures for what the visions are going to be and how they are going to move about upon the shadow screen.
1) The Man That Emperor Jones Kills
So the man is... maybe waking away from the card game.
Emperor Jones might say something that will make him turn back to look/say something.
And then when Emperor Jones shoots him (in the jungle) the man falls down, just like he did back when Emperor Jones first killed him. The man I think will be in a different colour, or be maybe still black, but a red splotch will appear on his chest. After the man starts to fall, he will dematerialise back into the forest.
The forest will materialise/change into the convicts, they will be much bigger than Emperor Jones, overwhelmingly so. And they will just start working, hopefully moving in time to the beat of the drums. I'm not quite sure what colour they will be, but as soon as Emperor Jones shoots them then they will dematerialise back into the forest.
I'm thinking I might cover the whole entire screen with slaves, and with every beat of the drum, maybe, they will disappear into nothingness. As they disappear they will start getting closer and closer to Emperor Jones, until he finally shoots one of them. And then they will turn back into the forest.
4) The Witch Doctor and the Crocodile
Ok, so I'm having two ideas about the witch doctor. I'm thinking I either make him/her full bodied. Like this.
And just make that representing the witch doctor, and have it float across the stage as if it were attached to a body. Then comes the crocodile. I don't really know if it will matter if the witch doctor will have to be on the screen at the same time.
If not, then I would like the witch doctor to disappear just before the crocodile comes up on stage, or the witch doctor changes into the crocodile. What I had in mind was to have the crocodile look quite far away, and then make it move closer to the screen/Emperor Jones, quite fast as well. Until it becomes this.
And just as it is about to snap shut its jaw, Emperor Jones shoots it and it will immediately materialise back into the forest. And what I mean about materialise, the pictures will transition between each other like in one of the youtube videos from the first entry, where the guy was fighting with his sword and shadows moved and changed into different things. Like bits of paper. Something like that.
16/4/2013
So I was thinking about the history book idea again, and it would seem like a good idea to have a huge book as a scrim. So it woul be like my original idea, but now the skrim is a huge history book. I don't know if the shape would make the shadows really weird, but this is just an example.
So this would be at the front of the stage, leaving only the downstage area for the actors. I still don't know about this idea though, and whether people would get that it's a history book, instead of just another book, or just a frame.
Ok so yesterday I was going on about the visions and the scenery materialising and dematerialising. I pictured the actual 'materialise/dematerialise' action to have a confetti, or paper quality to it (hence this could make the history book idea potentially work).
So obviously not christmas trees, but confetti, little bits of paper. This is what I mean by material/dematerialise. The visions/scenery will burst I suppose, or slowly change into this. Then they will have a swarming qaulity to them, and change into whatever they were going to change into. So I guess the swarming image would look something like this.
(Black confetti, white background)
So they would sort of swarm like that, some bits clustered together and then slowly change and warp into whatever vision/scenery they need to. I guess this would also tell audiences how erratic and increasingly more unstable Emperor Jones is becoming, and that his mind is ever changing and 'fraying'.
Other Scenes
I want the jungle to be a lot more simpler than this, and to be a really stark black and white.
Ok so this is pretty much what I'm looking for in terms of the jungle.
Clear and precise dramaturgical material that, along with the youtube vid effectively establishes the design concept...well done. HD-
Design Ideas
13/3/2013I'm still unsure about the overall design of my stage, but I do have some vague ideas that I think might be interesting to try.
First of all I had the idea of having the stage in two colours, black and white, mainly because in the 1920's everything about racism was very cut and dry. The mentality of US and THEM, or the OTHER. This idea however is I think cliche "Oooh a play about racism and African Americans, better have a stage that his black and white." It's a very obvious idea.
However, I was trolling through the internet this morning and found these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyWkB1SYDMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmlkmVoPuQAv
In both of these clips I like the idea of the character interacting with the shadows. In clip #1 I like that the shadows changed for different sort of settings, and the use of colour was a spectacle instead of the norm, which is what you usually get when you come across digital visuals. It might be cool to use shadows to change the scenery,this would be particularly interesting if the shadows turned into the jungle one moment, and then morph into the visions that Jones has.
Another idea I had was having a massive history book on the stage, THIS A FANTASTIC IDEA!!!!I don't really know why I came up with this idea. I thought maybe that it was sort of silly that some people in America wanted to get rid of the word 'nigger' from the novel Tom Sawyer because it was offensive. And of course it was/is offensive but that's what people said back in those times and even now. It seems that they want to erase what atrocities the 'white man' had done to the Africans, or in some way try to deny that it happened at all.
I think that's one of the main reasons why I came up with that idea.
2/4/2013
I just really like the detail of this one. But I would prefer my own one to be a little bit more simpler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUW4SwmfGc
It would be terribly awesome if some of the shadows did this, like kind of bleed through beyond the stage or come upon Emperor Jones like how the hand to the woman. I think it would kind of give more of that 'fear' that Emperor Jones has, and hopefully make his situation and his mental state potentially more dangerous or 'alive'.
What happened to the history book idea? You could combine your two ideas...
I don't know Serge, I mean I could make the frame for the shadows look more like a book...
15/4/1013
Ok, so I have pictures for what the visions are going to be and how they are going to move about upon the shadow screen.
1) The Man That Emperor Jones Kills
So the man is... maybe waking away from the card game.
Emperor Jones might say something that will make him turn back to look/say something.
And then when Emperor Jones shoots him (in the jungle) the man falls down, just like he did back when Emperor Jones first killed him. The man I think will be in a different colour, or be maybe still black, but a red splotch will appear on his chest. After the man starts to fall, he will dematerialise back into the forest.
2) The Convicts
The forest will materialise/change into the convicts, they will be much bigger than Emperor Jones, overwhelmingly so. And they will just start working, hopefully moving in time to the beat of the drums. I'm not quite sure what colour they will be, but as soon as Emperor Jones shoots them then they will dematerialise back into the forest.
3) Slave Auction
I'm thinking I might cover the whole entire screen with slaves, and with every beat of the drum, maybe, they will disappear into nothingness. As they disappear they will start getting closer and closer to Emperor Jones, until he finally shoots one of them. And then they will turn back into the forest.
4) The Witch Doctor and the Crocodile
Ok, so I'm having two ideas about the witch doctor. I'm thinking I either make him/her full bodied. Like this.
And have the colours really vibrant and alive. And he/her will just dance around on stage...
Or I just have this. Choose either one of them.
And just make that representing the witch doctor, and have it float across the stage as if it were attached to a body. Then comes the crocodile. I don't really know if it will matter if the witch doctor will have to be on the screen at the same time.
If not, then I would like the witch doctor to disappear just before the crocodile comes up on stage, or the witch doctor changes into the crocodile. What I had in mind was to have the crocodile look quite far away, and then make it move closer to the screen/Emperor Jones, quite fast as well. Until it becomes this.
And just as it is about to snap shut its jaw, Emperor Jones shoots it and it will immediately materialise back into the forest. And what I mean about materialise, the pictures will transition between each other like in one of the youtube videos from the first entry, where the guy was fighting with his sword and shadows moved and changed into different things. Like bits of paper. Something like that.
16/4/2013
So I was thinking about the history book idea again, and it would seem like a good idea to have a huge book as a scrim. So it woul be like my original idea, but now the skrim is a huge history book. I don't know if the shape would make the shadows really weird, but this is just an example.
So this would be at the front of the stage, leaving only the downstage area for the actors. I still don't know about this idea though, and whether people would get that it's a history book, instead of just another book, or just a frame.
Ok so yesterday I was going on about the visions and the scenery materialising and dematerialising. I pictured the actual 'materialise/dematerialise' action to have a confetti, or paper quality to it (hence this could make the history book idea potentially work).
So obviously not christmas trees, but confetti, little bits of paper. This is what I mean by material/dematerialise. The visions/scenery will burst I suppose, or slowly change into this. Then they will have a swarming qaulity to them, and change into whatever they were going to change into. So I guess the swarming image would look something like this.
(Black confetti, white background)
So they would sort of swarm like that, some bits clustered together and then slowly change and warp into whatever vision/scenery they need to. I guess this would also tell audiences how erratic and increasingly more unstable Emperor Jones is becoming, and that his mind is ever changing and 'fraying'.
Other Scenes
I want the jungle to be a lot more simpler than this, and to be a really stark black and white.
Ok so this is pretty much what I'm looking for in terms of the jungle.
Clear and precise dramaturgical material that, along with the youtube vid effectively establishes the design concept...well done. HD-